Göttinger Predigten
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13th Sunday after Pentecost, 09/07/2014
Sermon on Matthew 18:15-20, by Paula Murray
"If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."
We use the complementary lectionary, meaning that the readings complement one another or work with one another thematically. This offering utilizes both the Old Testament and the New Testament readings to speak to God's desire that his people repent, and his willingness to help them do so.
The lectionary, that three-year cycle of readings we hear during worship on a Sunday morning, exerts a discipline on a pastor that is occasionally unwelcome. So, on this beautiful morning, I look over the lot of you sitting there on your lawn chairs in your summer casual clothes and shades enjoying our first outdoor service in several years, and I think to myself, "Ezekiel, really, Ezekiel."
Yes, really, Ezekiel. After all, if we exercised too often the freedom we do have to mess a little, or a lot, with the lectionary texts all pastors would soon become one note johnnies, preaching Sunday after Sunday on the one theme that comes easily to us. Also, the context of the prophet's tale is one that speaks to our own circumstances, national and personal. Even as we celebrate the season we are aware of war and rumors of war, of the sufferings of peoples in other lands as disease ravages their communities or local economies fail. Even under the blue skies of this early September morning some of us wonder if their troubles might come our way. The prophet Ezekiel prophesies to a people whose world is on the brink of collapse and who blame others for coming disaster.
So, yes, Ezekiel, even on this celebratory Sunday when we "kick-off" the Sunday School programming for the year and look to the events of fall, Ezekiel.
It stinks to be Ezekiel.
The life of a prophet is not an easy one, or a happy one, not if he or she is a true prophet, a good prophet. There were in Ezekiel's time as in our own any number of people putting themselves forward as prophets. We tend to call them political pundits or economists or futurists these days, even pastors or preachers, but whatever they are called the role they apply for is prophet. So, how do we tell a good prophet, a true prophet, from a false prophet, a bad one? Well, first, a true or good prophet speaks for God, not for himself or herself, to God's people. Generally, he or she speaks to God's people for God about their relationship with God. Second, a good prophet or a true prophet speaks what the people need to hear, not what they want to hear. The prophet addresses the way they fail God or please him. As you might guess, this doesn't do much for a prophet's social life or reputation. Ezekiel is a good prophet, a true prophet, which means, as is typical for good and true prophets, that his lot in life is hard. He is not anybody's best bud. No one likes to hear they are not in good with God.
Why then, would anyone want the job of prophet? It is not a matter of wanting that job, but of God's call. Like Jonah of the whale (big fish) fame, Ezekiel is not a prophet because he wants to be a prophet. He is a prophet because God has ordained that he will be a prophet. As Jonah taught us, you can try to escape that call but good luck with that.
God provides a job description of sorts to go along with the call to be a prophet. This is where it gets worse for Ezekiel. God compares the job of prophet to sentinel, the one who watches from the walls of the city for enemies making a move to take the city. If the sentinel sees such movement, he is to blow a trumpet and warn the people they are about to be attacked. The sentinel is the city's early warning radar. Note in the first line the sword that is about to be lifted is the sword of the Lord. God punishes his people when they are unfaithful with the rulers and armies of other lands. If the sentinel blows his trumpet and the people respond he has done his job, and if they still lose the battle and the city it is not the sentinel's fault. If, on the other hand, the sentinel sees the enemy approach and does not blow the trumpet, the blood of the dead is on him.
Like I said, it stinks to be Ezekiel.
But the whole point of this strange and ominous reading is not to terrify Ezekiel into undertaking a difficult ministry. Ezekiel is God's instrument, his tool, for showing his people their faithlessness that they might repent of their sin and be reconciled to God. God yearns for a loving and close relationship with the people he has chosen to be his own, but he will not stay the ruin their faithlessness will bring on them. Ezekiel is the faithful sentinel; he blows his trumpet; he prophesies the people's doom if they fail to turn back to the Lord and away from sin. His efforts pay off. The people tremble in their fear; they ask, "How can we live?" "Say to them," the Lord says to Ezekiel, "as I live...I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?" Ezekiel is to show those people the error of their ways, the natural consequences of not taking care of the relationship between themselves and their Lord, but he is also to promise them that the same Lord is always willing to receive the repentance of his people and to bless them with life. The way of sin is death, but the way of faith is life. To repent, to turn from sin, is to live.
And this is where the reading from Ezekiel connects with the reading from St. Matthew's Gospel. It, too, is an invitation to repentance, to life, but the life it is concerned with is the life of the local church, of a community of faith threatened by death by conflict.
Granted, it is a little hard to see this, for this morning's Gospel text reads like court manual designed to force a guilty plea from a local burglar or robber. This is one of those times when we have to say that appearances can be deceiving. This is a manual, yes, but it is for church discipline, and it is not so much about ferreting out the bad guy as it is about not letting a dispute between two members of the same congregation get out of hand.
Is there anyone here who believes himself or herself to be perfect, meaning without sin? Raise your hands, don't be bashful. Why is no one raising their hands? Because we are, ______________, fill in the blank for me. Yes, we are sinners. If we are, as individuals, sinners, is there any reason to think that we are not also sinners when we gather like we do today for worship, or work at PALS together or teach Sunday School? Sin not only separates us from God; it also separates us from one another. Suppose you host a family event that goes on all day and into the night and all your siblings and their families come. Would you be surprised if one of your brothers or sisters said something or did something to make another one of your brothers or sisters mad or upset? No, because that is what brothers and sisters do to one another. Sometimes even on purpose, not by accident. It is no different with the family of faith, your spiritual siblings by virtue of baptism, who are every bit as able to get your back up as are your biological kin. If we are not careful even a "small" sin against one member of the body of Christ can become the wedge that destroys a family of faith. There's an old churchly proverb that reminds us that the devil can quote Scripture. I guess the logical extension of that is that if the devil can quote from the Holy Bible he can also accompany us to church.
The reading begins, "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one." Note that the point of the exercise is not to soothe wounded feelings of the one who may have been sinned against. No, the point of the exercise is to regain the one lost in sin. We could guess this just from the placement of this teaching in Matthew's Gospel. Just before this morning's reading is the Parable of the Lost Sheep, where the Lord leaves 99 sheep behind on a mountain to find one who has gone astray. Immediately after this morning's reading is Jesus' command that we are to forgive one another 70 times 7, meaning always, like it or not. Like a prophet, then, we are to show the sinner the reality of his or her sin, that the sinner might feel regret or even anguish at his wrongdoing, not to make him or her feel really, really bad for being such a jerk. The point is that your sibling in faith repent and turn away from that sinful behavior, and be reconciled to God, first, and you, and the rest of the church family, second.
Even if your intentions are rightly aligned, this is, like prophecy, a perilous task. It is only to be undertaken after confession of our own sin, and prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit. Remember Luther's explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed. "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and abundantly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers...." 1 We see our sin only with the help of the Holy Spirit, who also brings us to repentance. If it is this way for us, it is the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ, including those who have sinned against us. We might be called to this task concerning the sin of a sibling in faith, but we do it in all humility, aware of our own failings as a person and a believer.
If we fail one on one, then two or three witnesses are to be brought in to hear the complaint of the one who feels sinned against, and finally, if that does not work, the whole church family. But no matter how many are asked to witness the complaint, the point is not to prove beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt that one of the two is a dastardly sort of person. No, the point is to bring at least one of them, and possibly both, to repent of their sin and to be cleansed of it in such a way that the love that is proper to a family of faith is not diminished but is strengthened. It is about life, the life of Jesus Christ visible not only in his death on the cross but in his continual offer of mercy and salvation through his body, the Church.
Like the prophet Ezekiel we are all sentinels whose ministry is to warn one another of the damage done us individually and as a family by sin, not to humiliate or punish, but that the church might not be overcome by it. What we do matters, not only for our relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ, but for the relationship we have with one another.